Say No to a Huge Parking Fee Increase at UMass Boston!

We, the undersigned members of the UMass Boston community--including faculty, staff, students, alumni, neighbors and other supporters-- strongly oppose the plan to impose major parking fee increases that was announced by the UMB Administration on January 26th.

The Administration’s plan attempts to balance the UMB budget on the backs of students, faculty, and staff by imposing an on-campus rate of $15/day, and raising the fee to park at Bayside by 50% to $9/day. It makes parking unaffordable on our campus, and shifts costs that should be covered by the State to individual members of our community.

Such a steep parking fee increase amounts to a backdoor pay-cut for our faculty and staff, many of whom have no choice but to drive to campus five days per week, and a backdoor tuition-increase for students who have no choice but to commute via automobile. The increase is likely also to affect our enrollment, discouraging many students from attending UMB. In addition, parking spillover from students and employees seeking to avoid the increased fees will negatively impact the surrounding community.

As Boston’s only public university, and a commuter campus charged with serving the educational needs of a low-income and first-generation student population, UMass Boston has a duty to uphold affordable parking. We call on the UMB administration, UMass President Marty Meehan, the UMass Board of Trustees and all who support UMB's mission of making world-class public higher education affordable and accessible to all, to join with us as we:

Oppose the present parking fee hike proposal, which is likely to cause serious harm to our students, faculty, staff, and the communities we serve;

Call for the Mass. State Legislature and Gov. Baker to relieve UMB of debts incurred due to faulty state-managed construction of our original campus parking garage, and to pay for the cost of this new parking garage;